Vineyard Update

From Vineyard Manager, Brian Gregory:

Over the past few weeks, you have probably noticed a little more than dormant season pruning taking place in the South Vineyard.

You’ve probably seen our vineyard and grounds crews, and some heavy machinery, making some big changes. There has been a lot of interest, as well as questions from guests and staff, so I wanted to give a quick update to you all.

Over this past winter, we made the decision to focus our limited vineyard space on the three varieties that have performed best in our viticultural microclimate, and that have the best potential to consistently yield outstanding wine.

Those three wine grape varieties just happen to be the three from which we have produced our first three Family Reserve wines from our estate vineyard:

So the “heavy work” you have been seeing in the South Vineyard is the start of replacing three of the smaller vineyard sections (Petite Pearl, Arandell, Vignoles) with additional Aromella and Marquette vines. The old vines came out this week and last, and the new vines will be planted mid-May.

With March comes weather that changes by the day, and by the hour.

In addition to preparing the South Vineyard for spring planting, our vineyard crew has completed the initial round of dormant pruning of the Aromella in the South, and is halfway through the North, with both vineyards and the orchard to be completed by the end of March.

With the warmer weather coming next week, changes will come more and more quickly each day. As the earth warms, sap will rise, buds will swell, and the earliest spring flowers will bloom. As anxious as we all are for spring, hopefully it won’t come TOO fast, and the grape leaves will remain tightly budded, until at least well into May!